Nebraska

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter or whatever it is you might be celebrating this time of year!

this guy showed near our campsite in Chadron, NE (we'll get back to Chadron but thought he'd be appropriate for the occasion).

They don't call Nebraska the corn husker state for nothing but you have no idea just how much farm land there is here until you drive for several hundreds of miles where all you see is fields and a farm house every few miles.  When you could see 2 or 3 farm houses at the same time, you're probably in that town's center.  We drove up the Missouri river which borders Nebraska and Iowa but most of route 29 was in Iowa.  Our first night was in northern Omaha at the Glenn Cunningham Lake State Park:

Pull through site, 30 amp but nothing else.  There is a dilapidated bike trail circling part of the lake which worked for hybrid bikes.  Good place to camp for a couple nights while you check out Omaha.  We hit the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha for a day.  Awesome zoo - absolute go out of your way must see!  They had a butterfly pavilion where we spotted the very sad Cincinnati Bengal butterfly:

The zoo also has an aquarium with a 70 foot shark tunnel you walk through with the sea life all around you:

An incredible huge indoor jungle where you could find all kinds of wildlife (and some little one too):

And a huge domed desert area where these guys and so many more could be found:

Like many zoos, they also had Lions:

and Tigers:

and Polar Bears, oh my:

There were so many variations of all animals to see and most (but unfortunately not all) were in open areas (not cages) where they could roam a bit.

The Giraffes were very active and cool to watch:

Check out their throats ballooning up in order to make their noises on these guys in the Orangutan Forest :

You had to be there - everyone was laughing!  They are a riot to listen to but after about 10 mins, you need to get away!  The zoo had beautiful gardens to walk through and so many other animal exhibits to check out!  For a few extra bucks you could check out 1of 2 IMAX movies too - we did the Alaska IMAX movie which was great!

We moved on from north Omaha to Niobrara, NE.  Most of the ride was again in Iowa.  More farm land is all there was to see along the way.  The funniest thing was almost everyone we passed (even on the major 55-65mph roads) waved at us.  We figure they either thought they knew us, they're just friendly out here or they just don't see too many people around here - The Niobrara State Park was very nice:

This park set at the junction of the Niobrara and Missouri rivers.  In our back yard horses were roaming the park:

In our front yard several turkeys were grazing . . . this guy must of been in charge:

Just past our turkeys out front overlooked where the Niobrara and Missouri rivers met in the valley:

There were warnings up in the park about the tics and "chiggers".  That's all I needed to here having been through 6 months of chigger bite healing not too long ago.  Decided not to walk the trails here and instead try to beat the rain as we head to our next stop in Valentine, NE.  We hit a little rain on the way but the ride wasn't bad at all - passed a handful of cars along the way and they all waved at us (even the UPS guy).  Fishberry RV Campground has full hookups and free wifi - only 4.5 miles out of the town of Valentine (a real town compared to the last 300 miles that is).  Our first night here we caught a very nice sunset with the campground windmill cranking in the foreground:

While in Valentine we visited the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife refuge.  We saw deer, bison and a lot of these little prairie dogs bouncing in and out of their holes:

We walked a trail to the waterfalls there.  Short trail, nice falls but no picture.  Just down the street we stopped at Smith Falls State Park.  We saw several deer - caught this one in action:

Many horses roaming the fields including this guy which looked like a cow from a distance:

It's a very short hike up to the falls - very nice:

We caught this cardinal hanging out by the falls just before he took off:

We drove to Merit Dam and looked for Snake River Falls on the way but must of driven by it.  We took the long way back to camp so we could drive by the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw more bison, deer, cattle and horses however we also saw a beautiful pair of pheasants.  This one was less colorful but I was able to catch him in flight:

We scoped out a rails to trail which start in Valentine and goes for miles but the skies opened up and started pouring on us so we bagged it.  Next time!  Looked pretty cool!

We headed out of Valentine west for Chadron NE.  100s of miles of fields and farmlands and we only passed a handful of cars and tractors again (and everyone waving).  Chadron is the largest "city" we've seen in Nebraska since Omaha yet it's only a couple miles long and wide.  We decided against the full hookup campground in town and headed south 8 miles to the Chadron State park.  Now we're starting to see some terrain!  These guys welcomed us our 1st night:

We biked the loop in the park - very steep hill to climb but worth it once you reach the top:

Another day we hiked the Black Hill Overlook trail at our campground.  Great hike to the highest points in the park:

You could see for miles from the top - possibly the black hills of South Dakota:

We've seen several of these bluebirds in the park - they don't sit still for long:

Another day we headed for Crawford NE (next town over about 20 miles thru farmlands).  From Crawford we headed about 20 miles out to Toadstool Geologic Park in the middle of nowhere.  Chadron locals referred to it as their Yellowstone.  Well, it wasn't Yellowstone but it was pretty "cool"!  Emphasis on cool because the day we checked this out was in the low 40s with sustained winds of 25-30mph and gust over 70 mph - made for a fun hike thru this interesting landscape:

You might be able to tell Suze was having difficulty standing in the 70 mph breeze here:

From here we headed over to Fort Robinson just west of Crawford.  Another place highly recommended however call ahead to make sure the museums are open.  Lots of history to check out here but some of it closed on Saturday.  We did a scenic loop next to the fort - saw bison, cattle and a herd of wild horses:

Even though we crept up on this herd as they were crossing the street, we must of upset these two as they charged us and we jumped back into the truck:

We decided to head about 100 miles south to the Scottsbluff NE area before heading north to South Dakota.  On the way we stopped at Car-henge in Alliance NE: 

It was only a few miles out of the way so we'd say if you're driving by, check it out.   One of these cars was my 1970s Gremlin, I swear!  We arrived at our campsite in Gering and while setting up the blue skies turned dark, winds picked up, the temp dropped 20+ degrees and it started snowing/sleeting.  15 mins later it was beautiful again!  Crazy but what a nice campground.  Full hookups including 200+ cable TV stations, wifi and a great view:

Lots of great hiking and biking nearby.  We checked out Wildcat Hills Nature center which was closed but we hiked in - great views from the shelter:

We also biked Scotts Bluff National Monument trails - nice paved trails and great scenery:

along the trail we watched this fox hunt and pounce on something:

The view from the top of the Scotts Bluff was incredible:

each direction you looked:

About 20-30 miles away you can check out Chimney Rock (that's about all you can do is check it out):

on your way to Bridgeport where you'll find Courthouse & Jail Rocks (these you can climb):

No marked trail however so you had to wing it (good stuff!):

Another day we played golf at the very nice & very reasonable Scott's Bluff Monument Shadow Municipal Golf Course.  The course and scenery around it where beautiful.

And this weeks blog can't be posted without recognizing our military who took down Bin Laden!  Never forgetting the innocent murdered, our fallen military and those men & women still fighting:

We're off to Custer, South Dakota tomorrow where we'll be for a couple of weeks.  More to come . . .  enjoy!